jevenup Posted March 10, 2018 Report Share Posted March 10, 2018 New to the forum, so hello. I'm hoping for some help and advice on a pair of ARs I just acquired (thankfully cheaply). The Grill badge is AR-6, but the tweeters had been replaced with something from Radio Shack and some changes made to the crossovers! I have attached pictures in the hope that someone can identify which year/country of origin, if indeed they are AR-6s, and most importantly - where I might search for/find the correct tweeters (and crossover, if necessary).... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mister_roboto_hal Posted March 10, 2018 Report Share Posted March 10, 2018 Hello jevenup and welcome to one of the most comprehensive boards on New England vintage speakers. I am an AR9 guy - but there is this great article/thread on Classic Speaker Pages of a complete restoration of an AR-6. Look there and search this site looking for "AR-6". In all likelihood you will find all the information that you need. Now, finding replacement parts (particularly speakers), that is a different challenge. Oh, and be warned, this can can be a very addicting hobby/pursuit! Happy listening! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ra.ra Posted March 13, 2018 Report Share Posted March 13, 2018 On 3/10/2018 at 5:15 PM, jevenup said: I'm hoping for some help and advice on a pair of ARs I just acquired.... Yes, welcome to the forum, jevenup - - I love the AR-6's and I hope I can be of some help. Your speakers will require a little bit of work to get them back to being fully authentic, but the cabinets, grilles and badges all look very good. The crossover appears entirely original, and the 001-0 woofer (produced by Tonegen) is the proper "universal" replacement woofer supplied by AR - - I have these identical woofers in a pair of the smaller AR-7's (see pic). Where are you located? Without the paper labels on the cabinet backside, it is a little difficult to determine their location of origin; and without ID labels from the back of the original tweeters it is difficult to determine their date of production. Sometimes the serial numbers help with this question but not always. Based on the cabinet styling, veneer coloration, plain MDF backside, and yellow fiberglass stuffing, I'm willing to go out on a limb and suggest that these were produced in the USA. It appears that you have the version with the simplest crossover, which we've come to identify as Version C (see schematic diagram). This version has no coil and a two-position switch and drivers are wired with opposite polarity. Your speakers confirm that there still seems to be some confusion about the proper cap value - - yours shows 10uF (which is consistent with other AR-6's) but this schematic has amended this to be noted as 6uF. Many of the blue Sprague caps you find in these speakers still retain accurate measurements after all these years, but I can't say how well the Royalitic caps hold up. You might want to consider replacing these. It would be good to see your other speaker as well, but it's obvious that the one you've shown will need some woodworking surgery around the tweeter opening. AR produced several 1-1/4" tweeters with minor differences, but I tend to think that almost any of them (try to get a matched pair!) would work fine, with two caveats. First, you want to find rear-wired tweeters - - not the kind with exposed tinsel wires on the front. Second, you need to be aware that these tweeters were produced with two different magnet diameters, and you want to ensure that you are not trying to fit the larger magnet into a smaller cabinet cut-out. I will try to provide more specific tweeter information soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ra.ra Posted March 13, 2018 Report Share Posted March 13, 2018 Here are a few of the tweeter options that I think should work for your project, as long as the magnet and tabs will fit thru the cabinet hole. Left: smaller magnet, straight wire leads, non-decipherable part number Middle: larger magnet, straight wire leads, p/n 200014-3 Right: larger magnet, curved wire leads, p/n 200038-0 Not shown: larger magnet, curved wire leads, p/n 200034-0 (identical to 038, but with outer protective screen) And lastly, it appears that your woofer still has its original foam. If we can assume this speaker dates from the mid or late 70's, those foams are now 40 years old and may well be near the end of their lives. On my pair of similar woofers, the original foams visually appeared to be in great shape, but eventually I spotted small areas of failure. Yours should be inspected closely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jevenup Posted March 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 On 3/10/2018 at 3:44 PM, mister_roboto_hal said: Hello jevenup and welcome to one of the most comprehensive boards on New England vintage speakers. I am an AR9 guy - but there is this great article/thread on Classic Speaker Pages of a complete restoration of an AR-6. Look there and search this site looking for "AR-6". In all likelihood you will find all the information that you need. Now, finding replacement parts (particularly speakers), that is a different challenge. Oh, and be warned, this can can be a very addicting hobby/pursuit! Happy listening! Ra.Ra, thank you for such a thoughtful and informative reply - educated by which I am now on the look out for the appropriate tweeters (and crossover parts). Patiently excited to hear the results once I acquire the parts and complete the restoration! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ra.ra Posted March 15, 2018 Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 Just one more thought, jevenup. All of the AR-6's I have seen have used a 10uF cap in the tweeter circuit, but mine have all been either Version A or Version B as shown in above schematics. The schematic above for Version C includes the amended note for a 6uF cap, but clearly yours are showing an original 10uF cap. After you find some suitable AR tweeters to use, I'd suggest first testing them with the 10uF caps (old caps first.... then new), but you might want to have some lower values on hand (6uF?....maybe even 8uF?) as back-up options for comparison testing. The only reason I mention this is because I've seen printed material (company literature, reviews, etc.) that state three different crossover frequencies for the AR-6: 1500Hz; 1800Hz; and 2000Hz. This excellent thread below shows examples of all three versions, and when you get to the first post from KlausDK, you'll see an AR-6 (Version C) from Europe which uses the 6uF cap. There were many variable components among these different versions of the AR-6, and it may take a little exploration and testing to find the combination that suits you best. It is not always perfectly obvious with a straight-line solution. http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?/topic/1687-ar-6-crossover/ Are you in the USA, Canada, Europe, or elsewhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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